Development of Reagents to Measure the Immune Response of the Koala

Overview

Topic status: We're looking for students to study this topic.

The koala is an icon of the rich biodiversity we enjoy in our country. Despite its international recognition, wild koala populations are under threat from a variety of sources. While the major threat to the koala comes from land clearing and urban pressures, diseases threaten the long-term viability of the wild koala populations. The two main diseases of koalas are caused by Chlamydia, an obligate intracellular bacterial pathogen and the Koala Retrovirus. Chlamydial infections cause blinding conjunctivitis, infertility, pneumonia and urinary tract infections. Infections of the Koala Retrovirus, a double-stranded endogenous retrovirus, are associated with increased susceptibility to opportunistic infections, increased severity of chlamydial infections, reduced natural defences and general poor health.

Our QUT research group is currently developing the first chlamydial vaccine in the koala in collaboration with veterinarians and wildlife research teams from the Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital, Beerwah and Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. A major obstacle to measuring the effectiveness of this vaccine, however, is that we still lack reagents to define the nature of the immune response either to chlamydial infection and/or vaccination. The identification of koala cytokines, small proteins secreted by specific cells of the immune system, and the design of an assay to measure their expression, will be an important development that will not only help us to characterise the healthy
immune system of the koala, but to measure their immune response to infection.

Hypothesis: The koala genome encodes highly conserved cytokine genes that play important roles in the immune system's response to infection.

Aim 1: Bioinformatic analysis and design of PCR primers to amplify a range of predicted koala cytokine genes

Aim 2: PCR amplification and cloning of novel koala cytokine genes

Aim 3: Design assays to measure the expression of the new koala cytokine genes

Methods and techniques that will be developed in the course of this project:

  • Bioinformatic and phylogenetic analyses
  • PCR amplification and cloning assay
  • RNA extraction and cDNA generation
  • Quantitative real-time PCR
Study level
Honours
Supervisors
QUT
Organisational unit

Science and Engineering Faculty

Research area

Cell and Molecular Biosciences

Contact
Please contact the supervisor.